World Business Quick Take

Agencies

Sun, Feb 03, 2013 - Page 15

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook sues over data

Facebook Inc accused an application developer in a lawsuit of continuing to display information about users of the social-networking Web site after Facebook tried to add protections to the data. Profile Technology Ltd failed to keep its agreement to delete the Facebook user data it accessed and displayed on the ProfileEngine.com Web site, according to a complaint filed on Friday in federal court in San Jose, California. Profile Technology, based in Auckland, New Zealand, was supposed to delete the information in October 2010, but continues to “use and display out-of-date user data to this day,” Facebook said in the complaint. The information includes, among other information, users’ names, photographs and names of friends with links to data that Profile Technology stored, according to the filing.

GAMING

PlayStation 4 ‘on its way’

Sony is poised to unveil the next PlayStation game console on Feb. 20, a date that would give the Japanese electronics company a head start over Microsoft’s expected announcement of an Xbox 360 successor in June this year. Sony Corp invited journalists to an evening press event in New York. The company has not said what it plans to show off, but signs indicate that it will be the PlayStation 4. Sony would only say that it “will deliver and speak about the future PlayStation business.” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said it is a “super smart” move for Sony to pre-empt Microsoft. This way, the PlayStation 4 will get the spotlight without much competition.

BANKING

CEO declines bonus

New Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has opted not to take a bonus for last year, saying he should “bear an appropriate degree of accountability” for the difficult year his bank endured. Jenkins, who became CEO in August last year, said he was aware of considerable speculation about his bonus, so to avoid further unnecessary public debate he decided this week that he did not want to be considered for an award on top of his base salary of ￡1.1 million (US$1.72 million). He was entitled to an annual bonus of up to ￡2.75 million. Bankers’ pay has become a political hot potato in Britain, with lawmakers from all parties demanding a crackdown on bonus payments to appease a public which has become disenfranchised with its banks following the 2008 financial crisis.

OIL

Refiners reap profit rewards

Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, the largest US energy producers, are boosting profits with oil refineries that some analysts and investors urged them to divest as recently as last year. Earnings from processing crude into fuels such as gasoline and diesel more than made up for lagging returns from oil and natural gas exploration during the final three months of last year, Exxon and Chevron reported yesterday. Fuel refining helped propel fourth-quarter net income to a five-year high of almost US$9.95 billion for Exxon and a record US$7.25 billion for Chevron. Exxon’s full-year net income rose 9.3 percent to US$44.88 billion, just US$340 million shy of the US profit record the company set in 2008 when it raked in US$45.22 billion.